Strike hits 28 Midlands hauliers
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• As a direct result of a continuing refusal to meet union demands for £2.50 per week hgv driving licence money. 28 Midlands haulage firms were victims of a one-day strike by union members on Monday.
The 28 firms—employing approximately 1000 drivers—are members of the 100-strong "assenting group" of hauliers who until recently had a wage agreement with the TGWU (CM August 13). The wage pact with the union had ensured a period of industrial peace in the industry in the West Midlands, which ended when the agreement ran out and new demands by the union for hgv money and a £5 per week wage increase were refused by employers.
Member firms of the assenting group affirmed this week that despite the strike action and blackings and the threat of further action of this nature, they would continue to stand firm and in no circumstances would they pay the hgv money. All the firms have offered their drivers pay increases of 10 per cent which Mr John Parnell, RHA West Midland area secretary, believes most of them would be happy to accept without pressing for the extra £2.50 per week.
A meeting of some 3000 TGWU members, due to have taken place in Birmingham on Monday, which would have effectively brought a considerable amount of transport in the area to a standstill for the day, was cancelled and replaced by a meeting for shop stewards only on Sunday. It was following this meeting that selective strike action was taken against the 28 firms on Monday.
It is widely rumoured in Birmingham that a number of shop stewards attending Sunday's meeting who had been party to agreements with their employers accepting the 10 per cent increase offered without sticking out for the hgv qualification money, were stripped of their shop steward's card and badge and dismissed from the meeting before it got under way.
Mr Alan Law, regional TGWU organizer, is quoted in the local press as saying that these shop stewards "will have seen the error of their ways" and that no further disciplinary action would be taken against them.
Morris Transport Ltd is still affected by the total strike of its drivers, which is in its second week. Blacking by the union of Astons Transport has led to a complete closure of the firm and the drivers have had to be dismissed. The blacking which, last week, was affecting Coopers Road Services Ltd at one of their delivery points, has spread this week to another firm where Coopers' vehicles make deliveries although neither of these firms is a direct customer of Coopers. W. Al!port and Sons Ltd, one of the firms whose shop steward lost his card at the Sunday meeting, has been blacked in some places and another haulier who preferred not to be mentioned by name was expecting to find his vehicles blacked when they returned to the Midlands with loads on Wednesday and Thursday.
Of the 28 firms affected by the "one-day" strike action on Monday. 11 were still strikebound on Tuesday, and on Wednesday eight were still suffering strike action. Mr Parnell confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that, despite claims in local papers by Mr Alan Law that 92 firms were paying the hgv money, the 100 "assenting members" were still standing firm and none of them had agreed to meet the union demand.
It was also learned on Wednesday that Mr Ron Butt, managing director, Morris Transport Ltd, had given his striking drivers official notification of the suspension of their guaranteed week so that, when the strike is over, if Mr Butt does not have work for his vehicles he need not employ the men. Such action is provided for in the Road Haulage Wages Council Agreement on guaranteed earnings in strike situations.